Published: October 23, 2007 11:39 pm         

Column: The season for risks worth taking

Yard Dirt column

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — So, it turns out I probably should have gone through with my grass seed plans two weeks ago.

The frost on the ground the day I was supposed to pick up the seeding machine was a false start. Who would have predicted two weeks of warm days, mild nights and occasional gentle rains? It’s been perfect grass-growing weather.

It’s been perfect weather for other things, too. On Sunday, something peach-colored caught my eye, and it turned out to be a stalk of gladiolus, flowers that are supposed to bloom in July. The little patches of grass seed I did plant are shooting up sprouts as well.

This unexpected warmth got me in the mood for some unexpected gardening.

When I was doing yard work two weeks ago, I collected a handful of dried, brown seeds clinging to the dead stalks of the cilantro plants in my vegetable garden.

I have tried to start cilantro from seed many times and it never works. The little brown seeds from my own garden seemed even more prone to failure than the store-bought seeds, but they are free and available so I brought them inside.

With such low expectations, I didn’t put much effort into planting them. I just filled a pot with soil, sprinkled the seeds near the top, then covered them with a little more soil and watered. I covered the pot loosely with plastic wrap and put it on the kitchen counter.

This weekend, I noticed the pale tips of two or three sprouts peeking out. A day later, I had a pot full of inch-high seedlings reaching for sunlight. I learned my lesson from my last cilantro attempt and resisted the temptation to put the pot on the deck in the full sun. Sunburn kills seedlings.

This time, I hooked up a fluorescent light and created an impromptu indoor kitchen herb garden. I call it a garden because I took a thyme plant off my windowsill and put it under the light, too. It’s one of those potted herbs from the grocery store, the kind that comes in a tiny cup of soil to keep it alive longer. I bought it for a recipe, and there was so much plant left over that I replanted it in a bigger pot.

It’s nearly dead now, but that’s what this garden’s all about. It’s a “might as well try it, nothing to lose” kind of garden.

That’s so much more fun than the “buy all the right supplies and make meticulous plans” kind of garden.

Maybe I’ll dig the sage plant out of my garden and put that under the fluorescent lights, too. When you’ve got nothing to lose, the possibilities seem endless.

nnn

Julie Kirkwood writes for The Eagle-Tribune of North Andover, Mass. E-mail her at jkirkwood@eagletribune.com.